Author's
Note: It
came to me in the middle of things - in medias res. I suddenly
hit upon the idea when I read a certain manga.

Warning:
Blood and
gore. It's not too much that it has to be M-rated, though.

Frayed
Reason

By:
Yummei-sama no Hayashi

Disclaimer:
I own a gum
eraser!I
want to be your reason to live.

He
had been back for good. The villain had been laid to rest. The snake
bastard was not a threat. He was back, and after a series of
confusing and wonderful events, they fell in love.

"I
love you, Sasuke-kun. I want to be your reason to live."

He
had no purpose before. Life had lost all color – it had been dyed
red and black the day he lost his clan, and remained a furious storm
of raging crimson until he slew the one who had caused it to be that
way. Then she forced her way in, and the pinks and blues and greens
and the wonderful rainbow blended into one flurry of a fantastic
artwork… her artwork, falling into place as he found the joys of
life again. It was an eternal spring when he was with her.

Perhaps
he had been too lost in this flurry. Maybe his senses had fallen
asleep. Because with her, he knew he was safe. He could never fall
back into the darkness, ever again, for as long as she was with him.
For as long as they were part of the same puzzle.

"I'll
be your reason to live, if you let me."

It
had been a year, and she had disappeared after a mission. All who
cared and all who pretended not to care searched high and low for
her. The sick asked for her, the dying wanted to thank her one last
time. The younglings whined and begged for "oneechan" to come
play, the elderly requested for her to be found so that she could
read to them.

The
flowers were being neglected in the flower shop. The grassy hills
where you could see the sky, the barbeque place, and the training
grounds missed their usual occupants. A clan felt defenseless while
its mistress and its protector were gone. Akamaru's newborn pups
whined for their father. The bugs were being kept busy. The swords
smith began missing his most frequent buyer. The ink was crusting
around the paintbrush.

The
sake bottles and paperwork were left untouched. The orange book was
gathering dust. The ramen had been left cold.

And
he felt the most lost of all.

"I'll
hold on to you, even if you push me away."

He
found a letter slipped under his doorway, after a long hard search in
the outskirts of the country. It smelled like her perfume.

She
wants to live for you, the letter said. Would you try to let
her live at least?

He
stared long and hard at the letter, trying to clear his mind of
images of her smiling face, and decode the meaning of the note. The
smell of her perfume conjured unbidden glimpses of her sparkling
green eyes, like the green of the ocean water.

It
took him another whiff of that letter to realize it smelled of
snakeskin, too.

"I
know we had our problems… hehe… though you pretend not to
remember them! But…"

He
rushed out of the village, alone. He had given a word to the one who
held the power of friendship over him, and then went to go chase
after the one who held the power of enduring love over him. The other
youth insisted on coming, but it was his fight, not the
other's. He left the imminent Rokudaime in an unconscious slump,
after deadening his senses with his bloodline.

He
neared the place she could be kept, and found her alone, a panicked
expression in her eyes, welts on her wrists, and crimson on her
ankles. She had escaped, but barely. He told her bluntly she looked
stupid when she cried. She did anyway as she clutched onto his shirt.

It
had been quick enough. Something struck her silent of her incoherent
sobs, and she fell unconscious against him. He lifted his eyes to see
malevolent golden eyes, and he tensed, getting ready to murder this
man brutally for taking his only sanity and hurting her.

"It
was an experiment."

The
statement was enough to make him think twice and listen. The snake
wanted to know whether altering the pink blossom's blood would give
him the elixir he needed to become immortal. The only other
ingredient needed…

…was
his body.

He
knew it was going to be a mistake to rush headlong towards the snake.
But as usual, her frequent reminders of him not to be foolhardy in
battle went unheeded. He knew it would've done him good, and it
should've been his last favor to her.

Because
he fell unconscious as well.

"…I'll
always take care of you. I don't care if you refuse – I want to
be-"

He
woke up, and found his former master smiling serenely down at him and
explained quite calmly that as he lay down there, drugged and
unable to move, he had been fed a special substance that allow his
body never to rot. He had been a little dismayed that it involved
such brutal techniques, but it was nothing as long as it moved him
closer to his own goal.

"Do
you know whose flesh and blood you have just been fed?"

They
were one, literally, in flesh in blood. He stared up at her bloodied
stomach, guts spilling out, her irises hollow and empty.

"-one
with you.Always
and forever. Do you understand?"

He
would have wanted to vomit, but his muscles refused to move and
rendered him paralyzed. It was too late that he realized that her
wish had been taken too literally, and the light in her spring field
eyes had been the cost.

But
he knew he'd be with her soon too.

His
eyes slid in and out of focus, the man before him fading in and out
of being a gargantuan serpent. It would be up to the rest of them to
stop the madman.

Because
he wanted to be with her now.

"I
want to be… your reason to live. Will you… let me?"

His
eyes closed.

Whatever
you want.

-

-

-

-

-

:.:
don'tcry
on a sleepless night :.:

Author's
Note: It's
a little less gorier than I wanted it to be, but I'll leave the
goriness factor up to you to visualize. It can be as mild or as
brutal as you please.

By
the way, the manga I took the idea from is "Immortal Rain" by
Kaori Ozaki. My sister bought it this afternoon, and we read it. She
found the art great, while I found the story awesome. You should read
it sometime.

(We
got it at a bargain too – by the exchange rate, it only costs about
1.15 USD!)

So,
tell me what you think. I hope you guys managed to get the things I
wanted to get across, and that you enjoyed realizing them.

The author would like to thank you for your continued support. Your review has been posted.